The invention describes a secure element, such as e.g. a chip card, having a light emitting diode, abbreviated as LED. The secure element is adapted in particular for a contactless data transmission and for this purpose has a coil that serves for both energy and data transmission between a chip, such as a security controller, of the secure element and an external terminal, such as a contactless reading device.
As a rule, the maximally allowable voltage in the reverse direction of an LED is approximately 5 volt. If the LED is operated on a second coil of its own, said coil not being connected to a chip of the secure element, it must be ensured that the voltage made available by the second coil is limited in the reverse direction of the LED, so that the LED is not destroyed at an excessive voltage in the reverse direction. To avoid this, as a rule a second LED is connected in anti-parallel to the first LED. Anti-parallel means that the first and the second LED are electrically connected in parallel to each other, but the forward direction of each LED is different. A disadvantage of this solution is the higher current consumption by the second LED and the cost of the second LED.